Perhaps a slightly obscure topic, but having recently opened a Dalva Golden White 1971 I discovered my third cork from a bottle of port with some form of branding on the end, not just the side of the cork. The three so far are as follows:

1971 Dalva Golden White cork, which has "Colheita 1971" on the end of the cork.

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Do folks have any other examples of port corks with branding on the ends? Perhaps branding the cork end has become simpler and hence cheaper recently, and will/has become more common - is it a common practise on other types of wine at all in people's experience?

Having just had a quick look... I have noticed that a Vesuvio 94 cork is Just printed on the side, but a 2005 is printed on the end too. I am afraid I don't have enough of their corks to know when their 'style guide' changed.

Also, Grahams crusted bottled 2006 and 2007 have 06 and 07 indications on the cork ends. I will look through some other corks I have to look for more, but alas the older ones are too port stained. Photos can be emailed if you would like Phil?

Doggett wrote:Having just had a quick look... I have noticed that a Vesuvio 94 cork is Just printed on the side, but a 2005 is printed on the end too. I am afraid I don't have enough of their corks to know when their 'style guide' changed.

Also, Grahams crusted bottled 2006 and 2007 have 06 and 07 indications on the cork ends. I will look through some other corks I have to look for more, but alas the older ones are too port stained. Photos can be emailed if you would like Phil?

Good info, thanks Simon; I'd be interested to see images, yes please, particularly in case it is unusual - though it sounds as though perhaps less unusual recently. Will be interested to hear from Alex to see how far back it does/doesn't go for port and other wines from his cork collection.

Lying conveniently placed on the top of the cork jar was a cork from a bottle of Chateau d'Angludet 2005. This was branded "05" on the top of the cork. Approximately 20 other corks were lying around this one and were just as visible but none of the others appeared to be branded on the top.

But as Simon says, many of the older corks are too stained to be able to tell.

(And no, I don't have time to empty the cork jar. I'm busy reading, then having to write some more of JDAW's dream, then some other stuff, then empty the cork jar.)

Ok, so '05 is the oldest we have so far between us, excepting the '43. Any advance on '05 anyone?

(Alex, you need a break from all that screen work, doing something physical with your hands will help your mental wellbeing; so am sure your wife will understand your need to pour your corks on the floor mid-evening.

From the images Simon emailed through, it is clear that the wine market has used corks with branding on the end for a while (though how commonly I cannot say). Simon's examples include:

Chateau Kirwan - Margaux 1984 - which has "1984" in a circle branded on the end
Chateau Palmer 1989 - which has "1989" on the end
Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2001 - which has "2001" on the end
Vesuvio 2005 - which has "2005" on the end
Grahams crusted bottled 2006 and 2007 - which have a cross on the end with '0' in top left quadrant and '6' or '7' respectively in the bottom right quadrant, as below.

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The Graham's choice of design appeals, as an alternative to pure numbers.

It certainly seems that for corks used in port bottled in 2009+ that branding on the end has become more common. Aside from the '43 and re-corked bottles, Simon has shown wine corks with end-branding from significantly before that, but no other port corks bottled pre-2009.

Alex - did you ever get the chance to empty and check your cork jar? BTW, I'm about to start another thread giving you a second reason to do so also

Looking back through this thread, unless it was recorked (which it didn't look like from the image posted), current winner of the "earliest branded on the end of cork VP" is /2alph's GM2004 (presumably bottled 2006/7) - which I had missed with my last summary post (apologies /2alph, and thanks for posting the GM2004 image).

On some producers I can see the pattern that they always sidebrand the cork or never. On some there is no pattern transparent to me. Maybe a good discussion when we are together with "mixed" producers next time.